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Aiden’s jaws unclenched, and it took one step back.
Two steps.
Then it shook like a dog coming out of the water and snapped its jaws inches from his uncle’s throat.
She came to stand by Aiden and stared down at the cowed shifter. “Do you yield?”
Buck came to stand at her other shoulder. “Dad, it’s done.”
Aiden just growled.
Nathan, eyes still closed, showed his throat.
She stood up to address the rest of the wolves. “It’s done.”
At the sound of an engine, all the wolves turned toward the path.
A beat-up blue Ford truck chugged up the grassy hill. She realized with a start that she recognized the vehicle. It was her cousin’s, and its bed was filled with witches and wolves. Quickly, she jumped off the porch, ducked when she accidentally triggered a rogue flying can of paint, and ran for the truck to stand between her new family and her old.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked.
“We’ve come to bring you home,” the alpha of the rival pack shouted, and the wolves around them shivered.
“A girl can’t go for a 1 AM horse ride without her entire family chasing her down?”
“Um, no?” Becca said as she leaned out the passenger side window.
Goldie rolled her eyes. “Unless you’re going to commit me, you can’t stop me. And you can’t commit me because I’m not insane. I’m home.” She pointed backward. “He’s my mate.”
Her family looked horrified, and she twisted to find an equally horrified Buck on the top step.
“Not that one.”
Aiden stepped to the door, just dressed in jeans.
“He’s my damn mate. You’ve all gone on about how there’s only one. It would kill me to leave him.”
If there was ever a need for some plain speaking, it was now. But she could temper it with love.
“This ends now.” She turned in another circle. “You hear me? I appreciate the noble gesture. You have no idea how much.”
“You’re worth any fight,” Aiden said quietly.
“Damn straight!” Becca shouted.
“If I’m worth any fight, then I am also worth peace.”
“We will if they stop,” a dire wolf said from the crowd.
“Oh no,” Goldie said. “Doesn’t work like that. We’ll be killing each other forever that way.”
“So you just want me to go on pretending like they didn’t harm my sister?” Becca shouted. “There has to be a price for that.”
She was shocked to realize that everyone was there for her and fighting for her. Some had purer motives than others, but for a girl who’d never felt more than tolerated, it was a heady realization.
“Here’s how this is going to go.” She glanced at Paul, a quiet presence in the crowd. “A wise man once told me you can always tell the ones who haven’t mucked out a stable in their lives. I happen to own a new horse stable in Harpers Ferry.”
Aiden frowned. “When did you buy a horse stable?”
